Monday, September 15, 2003

Powell visits mass grave of Iraqi victims: "Secretary of State Colin Powell visited a mass grave Monday to highlight perhaps the single biggest human-rights abuse of Saddam Hussein's brutal regime - the chemical weapons murder of some 5,000 people in March 1988."

Palestinians demand U.N. protect Arafat: "The Palestinians are urging the United Nations to demand that Israel ensures Yasser Arafat's safety and key Security Council members are pushing both parties to implement the peace plan known as the "road map.""

Cheney: U.S. may seek more aid for Iraq: "Vice President Dick Cheney hinted Sunday that the Bush administration would seek more money next year than the additional $87 billion already requested to pay mainly for postwar costs in Iraq."

Bush Insists Strategy for Iraq Is 'Clear': "Underscoring his belief and hope that Iraq will be a stable democracy one day, President Bush told Americans on Saturday that his administration has a clear strategy and is moving forward on its work to complete the transformation of Iraq. (AP)"

Faux Osama?: "Buzzflash says it's interesting that: one, Osama bin Laden always seems to resurface any time the Bush administration wants to do something unpopular; two, bin Laden seems to have undergone a little "nip and tuck" in his latest video. The editors don't assert that the Osama tapes are a hoax, but remind us that is nothing is impossible in "a war of appearances.""

Repeat after me: Saddam, 9/11, Al-Qaeda: "With the occupation of Iraq rapidly deteriorating, Dubya liberally sprinkled the word "terror" in his speech. L.A. Times, noting the obvious, says Bush's speech "represent(s) a new tack by the White House: a concerted effort to quiet second-guessing about the campaign, cast the effort as part of a broader anti- terrorism cause and remind the public of the outcome's stakes." There is, of course, no evidence that Al-Qaeda was ever connected to Saddam. James Steinberg of the Brookings Institution says, "(Iraq) wasn't the place you had to confront Al Qaeda. They weren't there, and this is not what that war was about." Unfortunately, as the article notes, many Americans continue to believe their lying liar of a president. For a very funny spoof of Bush's speech, check out San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll's column today."

WMD? What WMD?: "The search for Saddam's deadly arsenal is now merely a footnote in the war. In what amounts to a political "do-over", Bush has recasted the mission in Iraq into Ground Zero in the broader war on terror. Rumsfeld didn't even ask about the weapons in his recent Baghdad visit. They've changed their minds about why they went to war and their sticking to it -- at least until that reasoning also fails them."

U.S. approved exodus: ""The United States allowed members of Osama bin Laden?s family to jet out of the US in the immediate aftermath of September 11, even as American airspace was closed," writes the Edinburgh Evening News. The Bush administration allowed a plane to land in several cities to pick up passengers before heading home out of the country."

Meet our new best friend: the United Nations: "In just the latest flurry of overtures by the White House toward the UN, George Bush reportedly told the prime minister of Netherlands that he supports an increased international role in Iraq. This sudden change of heart is most likely a result of the reality check delivered by the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO report, delivered in the form of a letter to Sen. Robert Byrd, says that given the present one-year rotation policy, the Pentagon would be forced to reduce the 180,000 soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait to between 38,000 and 64,000 in six months. To put it bluntly, the Pentagon simply doesn't have the soldiers to secure Iraq, let alone fulfill its commitments in Afghanistan. But some experts are calling the latest U.S. proposal to pull together an international force under the command of an American general "too little, too late," Iraq expert Toby Dodge told the BBC, "The danger now is that diluting the US presence might not do the trick. The resentment against the occupation is so great.""

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